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In ‘The Flash’ recap, Barry goes up against a villain from the future who knows Savitar’s true identity and may hold the key to saving Iris…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Following a stop over in a musical last week, ‘The Flash’ returned to the main story that’s been featured all season long as Barry Allen does everything in his power to stop Savitar from killing the woman he loves.

Ever since Barry accidentally traveled into the future and saw Savitar murder Iris, he’s been haunted by the vision while trying to prevent that moment from ever happening.

Unfortunately, Barry’s best attempts to alter the future haven’t worked and time is beginning to run out until that fateful day when he goes up against Savitar and loses everything that matters to him.

In the latest episode, Barry goes up against a villain from the future who knows all about his fight with Savitar and the fate that awaits Iris, but more importantly he knows the identity behind the man who calls himself the ‘God of Speed’.

It places Barry in a particularly difficult moral conundrum — is it worthwhile to let a murderous criminal escape if it means saving the woman he loves or does he have to do the right and just thing and put this bad guy behind bars?

This episode also sees another key character flat line and nearly die before the gravest of decisions are made to bring them back to life.

Magic Man

Barry and Iris are as happy as ever after getting re-engaged to be married, but when Joe’s girlfriend Cecile suggests going to a show that takes place after the fateful day when the future Mrs. West-Allen is supposed to die everybody at the table freezes up for a moment. Barry quickly interjects and says that they will make that date as he continues to try and find a way to save Iris from Savitar’s blade.

Elsewhere in Central City, a new villain has shown up by the name of Abra Kadabra and he’s attacking several tech companies around town while using his special brand of “magic” to steal and murder his way to finding whatever it is he needs.

When Gypsy shows up from Earth-19, she explains that Abra Kadabra is a villain from the 64th century, who has teleported throughout the multi-verse causing all sorts of mayhem including several deaths on her world. Now Gypsy has come to collect him before he can do any further damage.

Barry’s first attempt to capture him comes up short, but that’s after Abra Kadabra taunts him about their shared history together and the information he knows about the Flash from the future. It turns out Abra Kadabra knows all about Savitar and Iris’ death and he loves taunting Barry with what he knows will soon happen.

Thankfully, Barry’s second attempt to take down Abra Kadabra goes much better once he handcuffs the villain and prevents him from using his powers any longer. It turns out, Abra Kadabra isn’t magic but instead uses nano-technology sewn throughout his body to create the tricks that help him kill and steal his way through multiple worlds. But stopping Abra Kadabra from using his powers is the least of Barry’s worries right now after the 64th century villain reveals his ace card once he’s been caught.

Abra Kadabra knows Savitar’s true identity and he’ll tell Barry the truth so long as he allows him to escape.

The Greater Good

Gypsy is desperate to take Abra Kadabra back to her world because he’s set to face the death penalty for all the crimes he perpetrated against Earth-19. While Cisco is trying to rekindle the moment they shared during her last visit, Gypsy is much more cold and distant this time around.

With Abra Kadabra locked away, Barry tells Iris about the decision he’s been faced with — should he release this criminal in exchange for information about Savitar or would he be perpetuating another in a long line of mistakes by just allowing a murderer to go free? Iris eventually convinces Barry that no amount of information to save her would be worth sacrificing his own moral code as a hero and the savior of Central City.

Barry resigns to turn Abra Kadabra over to Gypsy, but he’s not the only person at STAR Labs who wants to make sure Iris doesn’t die.

A moment later, Joe West arrives at the holding cells and agrees to free Abra Kadabra in exchange for the information about Savitar. Kadabra agrees, but just when the door opens to his cell, the alert in the building goes off, which signals Gypsy to go get her man.

Her arrival through a portal gives Abra Kadabra the opening he needs to escape.

Joe, Gypsy and the rest of the team give chase while Abra Kadabra goes after the real piece of technology that he wanted from STAR Labs in the first place. He enters into Thawne’s private time chamber and steals the power source that he once used in building his time machine back to the future.

When the team catches up to Abra Kadabra, he sets off an explosion in the lab that allows him to escape. Amidst the chaos and falling debris, Caitlin is impaled by a random pole from inside the lab and she’s starting to bleed out. Without surgery, she won’t be long for this world.

Back to the Future

Because Caitlin is actually a meta-human, the team can’t take her to a regular hospital so it forces Julian to do the surgery to remove shrapnel from her body while she gives him instructions from the medical table. Through some painstaking surgery, Julian is able to remove all the metal that’s threatening Caitlin’s organs, thus keeping her alive.

Of course, Gypsy is livid that Joe allowed Abra Kadabra to escape, but he makes no apologies for doing whatever it takes to save his daughter. Finally after Cisco confronts her again, Gypsy comes clean that Abra Kadabra killed her former partner a few years ago but he was more than just her bounty hunting teammate. This was someone that Gypsy loved and Abra Kadabra took him away from her.

With Caitlin safe from the surgery, Team Flash turns their attention back to finding Abra Kadabra and that’s when they discover that he stole the power source from Thawne’s old time chamber inside STAR Labs. It doesn’t take long for them to surmise that he’s building a time machine so he can finally return to the 64th century.

His exit will not only prevent Gypsy from getting closure for her former partner but it will stop Barry from any chance he has to find out Savitar’s true identity.

As Abra Kadabra prepares to jump into the future, Flash, Kid Flash, Gypsy and Vibe all arrive to stop him. The ensuing battle puts everybody in harm’s way but Barry is finally able to get the upper hand and snatch Abra Kadabra out of his space ship before it hurdles back into the future without him.

Back at STAR Labs, Barry tries to reason with Abra Kadabra one last time to tell him Savitar’s identity. Barry does his best to remind Abra Kadabra that he has a family and people he loves and perhaps that’s enough for him to share this information to save Iris.

Unfortunately, Abra Kadabra laughs in his face because the Flash has been his mortal enemy for decades and by keeping this information from him, he’s effectively killing Iris West just as much as Savitar will do in a matter of weeks. Gypsy ultimately carries Abra Kadabra back to Earth-19 where he will face the death penalty. She also leaves Cisco behind with a lot of unanswered questions on whether or not they’ll ever have a future together.

A Cold Day in Hell

Following the encounter with Abra Kadabra, Barry finally realizes that he’s been going about this entire ordeal the wrong way. He’s always one step behind Savitar because the ‘God of Speed’ is always one step ahead because he’s from the future. If Savitar knows how this entire situation will unfold, Barry needs to read from the same play book.

So Barry tells Joe and Iris that he has figured out the way to save her.

He needs to travel into the future to find out how his older self stopped Savitar in the first place. If Barry can find out that information, he may be able to save Iris while also putting an end to Savitar once and for all.

And back at the lab, Cisco and Caitlin are sharing some lime Jello-O when H.R. returns from a weekend tryst with a woman he just met. The whole team is finally back together, but they will soon be one short again when Caitlin starts seizing and flat lines on the bed.

Julian rushes in to try and save her life, but no amount of oxygen or electric shock brings her back from the dead. The team sadly watches the life fade from Caitlin’s body, but Julian isn’t ready to give up on her yet.

Cisco revealed early in the episode that when Caitlin transforms into Killer Frost, her meta-human DNA will help heal wounds faster just like what happens with Barry whenever he’s injured. Caitlin refused to go that round but now that she’s dead, Julian takes one last step to try and save her life by removing the neckace.

A few seconds later the wound on Caitlin’s stomach heals, her eyes open with a pale shade of blue and a burst of cold air explodes out from underneath her. As the team picks themselves off the floor, they see that Caitlin Snow is no more.

Killer Frost has risen from the grave and winter has finally arrived in Central City.

‘The Flash’ is off for the next few weeks but returns with the final episodes of season 3 starting Tuesday, April 25 on the CW.